Current News

Beginning Monday, July 18, GAW will begin the final phase of its Morrisville Network upgrade. This effort began in the first quarter of 2011 with the upgrade of the GAW network backhaul links, the equipment that delivers the Internet to the company’s transmission equipment known as access points (AP). The final phase will include the replacement of the GAW AP equipment and customer premise equipment. The upgrades will be completed by Friday, July 22 and will enhance the services of more than 100 last-mile subscribers with speeds up to 6mbps, Digital Voice Services and HDTV. GAW will absorb the $399 installation and new customer equipment cost.
Final Phase

The Vermont Department of Public Service (DPS) has named John Beling as its new Director of Public Advocacy and Consumer Affairs. Mr. Beling, who has served as Special Counsel for DPS during the past year, will head the Department’s staff of attorneys who represent ratepayers in all public service company proceedings before the Public Service Board and in all other venues where those interests are at stake, such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Beling will advise the Commissioner and DPS regarding the public interest and will help guide the long-term interest of all Vermonters in reliable, environmentally sustainable, and economically sound provision of utility services. He will also oversee the Department’s Consumer Affairs division which reviews and investigates consumer complaints regarding regulated utility services.

In this era of debate over the value of higher education, Saint Michael's College continues to focus on excellence in teaching and learning and on assessing how well student learning outcomes are achieved. Saint Michael’s vice president for academic affairs, Dr. Karen Talentino, is leading the assessment efforts at the college. These include a grant to support training faculty to effectively assess student learning.
Saint Michael's College President John J. Neuhauser was informed last week that the Davis Educational Foundation would award the college $214,500 over three years to support a project titled Promoting Faculty Leadership and Governance in Learning Outcomes Assessment.

FairPoint Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: FRP), a leading provider of communications services, today announced that it met its regulatory broadband commitment in Vermont by the June 30, 2011 deadline. With this achievement, FairPoint now offers broadband service to more than 83 percent of its customers in Maine, more than 85 percent of its customers in New Hampshire and almost 90 percent of its customers in Vermont.
In meeting its Vermont commitment, FairPoint expanded broadband access to approximately 140 communities and neighborhoods in the state. The Vermont broadband buildout, along with the continued expansion efforts in Maine and New Hampshire, clearly demonstrate FairPoint's commitment to broadband as a growth strategy. FairPoint surpassed 300,000 high-speed Internet subscribers across its 18-state footprint during the second quarter of 2011.

Quorum Health Resources (QHR), the nation’s largest hospital management company and the seventh largest healthcare consulting firm in the United States, recently announced the winners of its 2011 Excellence in Leadership awards. Jill Berry Bowen, CEO of Northwestern Medical Center accepted the award for Leadership in Quality Initiatives on behalf of the hospital.
Northwestern Medical Center has ‘taken leadership in Quality programs,’ said QHR President and CEO James L. Horrar, ‘In addition to achieving excellent quantitative results, this hospital has been an early adopter of Quality Improvement initiatives implementing; A "Quiet Culture Awareness" program in 2010; participating in a state Quality Program to reduce the number of avoidable admissions to the Emergency Room; and developing a Medical Home Model for Primary Care Services in conjunction with the state’s Blue Print for Health.’

Readers of AmericanStyle magazine, for the seventh year in a row, recommend Brattleboro as a top destination for collectors and travelers who love art galleries, museums and festivals.
In the Top 25 Small Cities & Towns category, the magazine’s readers have named Brattleboro as No. 13, up from No. 20 last year, among America’s Top 25 Arts Destinations for 2010. Burlington also was named in the category for towns with populations of 100,000 and under. Complete results of the poll may be found atwww.americanstyle.com.
Burlington, VT was ranked No. 17 and Northampton, MA was ranked 22.
According to magazine publisher Wendy Rosen of Baltimore, these towns are known for the warm welcome that they extend to art collectors and arts tourists as well as local and regional arts lovers.

Governor Peter Shumlin will urge his counterparts in the Northeast to support a meaningful carbon cap and renew their commitment to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), particularly in light of the New Jersey decision to withdraw from the environmental agreement, at a meeting in Nova Scotia that gets underway on Sunday.
The governor will focus on the issue at the 35th Meeting of the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers taking place in Halifax on July 10-12. On the official agenda are meetings to discuss the economic realities facing the U.S. and Canadian region; enhancing trade between New England the Canadian provinces; maximizing the potential of each region’s energy resources; and confronting shared environmental challenges.
In addition, Shumlin will discuss efforts to bring a high-speed rail route through New England to Montreal with his counterparts.

Avatar International, an industry leader in healthcare quality improvement services recently recognized its award winning hospital partners for 2010.
Central Vermont Medical Center was presented with the Avatar 2010 Exceeding Patient Expectations award, comparing CVMC to more than 400 hospitals across the United States. Accepting the award for CVMC were Dixie Mercier, BS,RT (R,CT,MR) Director Diagnostic Imaging and Chair of the Customer Services Initiative Committee (CSI) and Kelly Holland, Quality and Patient Safety Specialist.

Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities & Health Care Administration (BISHCA) Commissioner Steve Kimbell today announced the appointment of Georgia John Maheras as Deputy Commissioner of Health Care Administration. The Health Care Administration is responsible for oversight of health insurance companies in Vermont, the Hospital budget review process and hospital capital expenditures through the Certificate of Need (CON) process.
Maheras will assume the position effective August 29.
Maheras brings to BISHCA a diverse background in health care, having worked both for a major managed care company in Massachusetts and a variety of policy and advocacy organizations. An attorney, she has served as a health care advocate for Boston-based organizations including Health Care for All and Health Law Advocates, where she engaged in litigation, policy development and legislative advocacy.

A Massachusetts and a Vermont company that each store significant amounts of oil are facing EPA penalties of up to $177,500 for failing to take adequate precautions meant to prevent and contain oil spills.
Specifically, EPA’s New England office alleged in a complaint filed recently that Knight Oil of Salisbury, Mass., and Rowley Fuels of Allburgh, Vt., failed to adequately prepare and maintain Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure plans, known as SPCC plans. Both complaints were based on inspections by EPA staff.
The complaint against Knight Oil alleged the violations took place at its facilities at 49 Congress St. and 91 Congress St. in Amesbury. Among other things, SPCC plans require adequate containment to prevent spilled oil from reaching surface waters. Several surface waters, including the Back River, Clarks Pond and the Powwow River, could be affected if oil were spilled from either facility.

The Vermont Energy Education Program (VEEP) is offering two institutes this summer to help teachers understand the science, as well as the costs and benefits, of producing electricity using renewable energy. The goal is to give teachers the knowledge and hands-on experience they need to explore topics related to solar power and wind power with their students and have a greater understanding of current energy issues. The two 4-day institutes cost $300 each. A limited number of scholarships are available through VEEP.

US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) hails a major new rule targeting cross-state air pollution and cleaning Vermont’s air that has been in the works for more than 20 years. Leahy said the release Thursday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of a final Cross-State Air Pollution Rule ‘goes directly to the distant sources of pollution that have long bedeviled clean air strategies in Vermont, New England and other areas of the country. This will substantially reduce the wayward drift from dirty old coal-fired power plants that have been one of the thorniest problems in cleaning the air we breathe.’